egb_hibs
Private Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2002
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30685433
This bloke's resilience is almost monty python-esque!
"In 1899 he saw the opportunity to experience his first taste of war. Abandoning his studies, he left for South Africa to serve as a trooper in the British Army during the second Boer War. As he was under military age, wasn't a British subject and didn't have his father's consent, he pretended to be 25 and signed up under a pseudonym
It was a baptism of fire which ended with him receiving bullet wounds to the stomach and groin, necessitating a return to England. []
At the outbreak of WW1 in November 1914, Carton de Wiart, now naturalised as a British subject, was serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps, fighting the forces of the Dervish state.
During an attack on an enemy stronghold, he was shot in the arm and in the face, losing his left eye and part of his ear []
During the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans launched an artillery barrage in which Carton de Wiart's left hand was shattered. According to his autobiography, Happy Odyssey, he tore off two fingers when the doctor refused to amputate them. His hand was removed by a surgeon later that year."
Then there's the stiff upper lippedness...
(when he was shot in the face)
"He didn't check his stride but I think the bullet stung him up as his language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye, but we had to keep him with us. He must have been in agony."
"I honestly believe that he regarded the loss of an eye as a blessing as it allowed him to get out of Somaliland to Europe where he thought the real action was."
These days no doubt the army has more chance of getting sued for health and safety exposures than this sort of thing!
This bloke's resilience is almost monty python-esque!
"In 1899 he saw the opportunity to experience his first taste of war. Abandoning his studies, he left for South Africa to serve as a trooper in the British Army during the second Boer War. As he was under military age, wasn't a British subject and didn't have his father's consent, he pretended to be 25 and signed up under a pseudonym
It was a baptism of fire which ended with him receiving bullet wounds to the stomach and groin, necessitating a return to England. []
At the outbreak of WW1 in November 1914, Carton de Wiart, now naturalised as a British subject, was serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps, fighting the forces of the Dervish state.
During an attack on an enemy stronghold, he was shot in the arm and in the face, losing his left eye and part of his ear []
During the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans launched an artillery barrage in which Carton de Wiart's left hand was shattered. According to his autobiography, Happy Odyssey, he tore off two fingers when the doctor refused to amputate them. His hand was removed by a surgeon later that year."
Then there's the stiff upper lippedness...
(when he was shot in the face)
"He didn't check his stride but I think the bullet stung him up as his language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye, but we had to keep him with us. He must have been in agony."
"I honestly believe that he regarded the loss of an eye as a blessing as it allowed him to get out of Somaliland to Europe where he thought the real action was."
These days no doubt the army has more chance of getting sued for health and safety exposures than this sort of thing!
